Hero, Freak or Just a Normal Wizard?
by Teddylonglong
Summary: ONE-SHOT. Not everything revolves around Harry Potter - or does it? An informative first night at Hogwarts. Completely AU! Mentioning of verbal abuse!Dursleys. Just a drabble for your entertainment...
**Hero, Freak or Just a Normal Wizard?**
 **by Healer Teddylonglong**

 _All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story.  
I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes._

 **COMPLETELY AU!**

* * *

Albus Dumbledore let himself sink behind his desk, musing about the fact that little Harry Potter had been sorted into Gryffindor.

"Sopho, I must thank you for sorting Harry into my old house," he said, gently, looking at the Sorting Hat that was sitting on the shelf next to Fawkes, who was just recovering from a burning day.

"Ah, I'm glad you're pleased old man, but I can tell you that it wasn't to receive your appreciation but merely because the child begged me. Otherwise, I'd have sorted him into the house of the snakes, as that's where he'd really belong," the Hat replied in a firm voice, fluffing his brim.

"Do you really believe so?" Albus enquired, feeling slightly shocked at the idea. _'If anyone has to be sorted into Gryffindor, it's certainly Harry,'_ he mused. _'After all, he's the heir of Godric Gryffindor and Rowena Ravenclaw and the saviour of the magical world.'_

HP

Realising that his four roommates in the Slytherin first-year boys' dormitory were already asleep, Draco Malfoy let out a long sigh of disappointment. _'I thought we'd be able to discuss some things before bed,'_ he mused, feeling slightly annoyed. _'Potter dared rejecting my friendship,'_ he thought in disbelief. _'Father will be so upset. Maybe I should challenge him to a wizard's duel to show him who has the upper hand in the wizarding world. Potter looked fairly small, and since he grew up with muggles, it won't be too difficult to get him with one of the useful spells that Father taught me. Oh well, we'll see. At least Slytherin and Gryffindor have classes together, so not everything is lost yet.'_ With that comforting thought, he closed the curtains around his bed to get some sleep as well.

HP

Hermione Granger let herself sink into bed with a small smile playing on her lips. _'Finally, I'm at Hogwarts,'_ she thought, happily. _'Neville, Harry and Susan are really nice. It almost feels as if I had already found three friends, for the first time in my life,'_ she thought, feeling happier than she had been for a long time. _'Thank God that the Sorting Hat put at least Neville and Harry into Gryffindor with me.'_ Deciding to write to her parents first thing in the morning, she once again checked that her alarm clock was properly set, before she closed her eyes, ready to fall asleep.

HP

Ronald Weasley reflected dinner at the Gryffindor table, the most important event of the evening – at least in his opinion. _'Potter is in our house,'_ he mused, feeling extremely jealous of the boy's wealth and fame as he considered the boy who lived. _'I'll try to friend him like mum instructed me,'_ he finally decided. _'If I'm friends with him, maybe not only Ginny will get to marry him and lay her hands on the Potter fortune, but I'm also going to be famous for being the best mate of the boy who lived.'_ That incentive in mind, he drifted off to sleep, feeling very clever and relaxed.

HP

Susan Bones closed the curtains around her bed and quickly wrote a letter to her aunt, so that she could post it first thing in the morning.

' _Dear Auntie,_

 _I did it! I'm in Hufflepuff together with Hannah. You won't believe with whom I spent the train ride though. I shared a compartment with Hannah, Neville Longbottom, Harry Potter and a muggleborn girl. Harry is totally nice. He's not bigoted or anything. He didn't even know that he's a hero in the magical world. He was sorted into Gryffindor, but I hope that we can stay friends.  
All my love  
Susan'_

Putting away the parchment and quill, she lay down, ready to go to sleep in anticipation of a wonderful time at Hogwarts with her old and new friends.

HP

Neville Longbottom followed his classmates into the Gryffindor first-year boys' dormitory in excitement. Until a little more than a month ago, he had not even be sure if he was going to receive a Hogwarts letter, considering that his granny often told him he did not have much more magic than a Squib. However, tonight, the Sorting Hat had put him into Gryffindor – just as if he was a completely normal wizard. Neville felt happier than he could remember having felt before.

' _I'm even together with Harry,'_ he mused. _'I wonder if he knows that he's my godbrother with my mother being his godmother and his mother being mine. Maybe I should speak with him about it. He seemed quite nice during the train ride and not arrogant at all like Draco Malfoy and some others.'_ He looked over to where Harry's bed was, only to notice in surprise that it was completely unoccupied. His luggage was still untouched next to his bed, where the elves had placed it. _'Harry didn't even come to the dormitory,'_ he realised. _'I wonder where he is.'_

After debating with himself if he had the courage to climb down to the common room once more in spite of the fact that the first-years had been told to go to bed, he hesitantly scrambled out of his most comfortable bed. Not even bothering to put shoes onto his bare feet, he hesitantly descended to the common room, feeling very uncomfortable as he realised that all eyes turned to him.

"What are you doing out of bed, Longbottom?" the fifth-year prefect, Percy Weasley, enquired in a stern voice.

"I… I'm sorry, but I was wondering where Harry Potter was," Neville stammered, frightened. "He's not in our dormitory."

"He's not?" Percy asked, seemingly alarmed.

Neville let his eyes wander around the common room, however, there was no sign of the smallest first-year with round glasses and messy black hair either.

"Well, go back to bed. I'll inform Professor McGonagall," Percy decided, and Neville worriedly returned to the dormitory, wondering what could have happened to his new friend.

HP

' _I just hope the twins have nothing to do with it,'_ Percy thought, grimly, having noticed that his twin brothers had vanished through the portrait hole shortly before Neville Longbottom had arrived at the common room. _'They're third-years now, so they really must behave a bit more like responsible students,'_ he mused, as he absentmindedly headed to Professor McGonagall's office.

HP

Severus Snape patrolled the supposed to be empty corridors of the castle knowing that curfew had just begun. _'The next seven years are going to be the greatest nightmare,'_ he thought in annoyance. _'Potter is the spitting image of his father, and he's surely going to gallivant the halls as if he owned the place, just like Potter Senior did.'_

He was brought out of his musings, when he suddenly heard hushed voices coming from the corridor leading up to the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom.

Without making any sound whatsoever, he strode in the direction of the voices until he could recognise Fred and George Weasley in the small light made by the tip of his wand. There was a third figure, however, it fled in the other direction as soon as he approached, and Severus could not make out who it was.

"Weasley and Weasley, what are you doing here after curfew?" he asked in a dangerously quiet voice, preparing himself to take enough points from the pranksters to make Gryffindor go into minus points. _'Probably for the first time ever,'_ he thought, efficiently hiding a smirk.

"Ah sorry Professor…"

"… We're already back on our way to Gryffindor…"

"… We just thought…"

"… that we had to…"

"…"

The twins replied in their usual sing-song that used to drive Severus nuts, and he did not bother to listen till the boys were finished.

"Fifty points from Gryffindor and detention with me tomorrow evening," he informed the twins. Usually, he would have diverted such a detention to Mr. Filch, however, the twins were quiet adept at the fine art of brewing potions, so that he decided to oversee their punishment himself. _'I'll make them brew a potion that they can try out on the Gryffindor first-years,'_ he thought, inwardly smirking.

HP

The twins inwardly groaned in frustration, when the Potions Master caught them as they were just about to put the Defence Against the Dark Arts classroom under the Fidelius charm with Peeves as the Secret Keeper. However, in the middle of their spell casting, the professor showed up and Peeves fled before they could finish the incantation.

Feeling very annoyed at their fate, they slowly followed the professor towards the entrance hall, only to almost bump into a very irate headmaster.

To their relief, Professor Dumbledore seemed to not even notice them but instead addressed the Potions Master. "Severus, have you by chance seen Mr. Potter?"

Snape rolled his eyes in apparent annoyance, before responding, "Why would I? Is he so above everyone else that he has to gallivant the castle already in his first night here? Is his dormitory not good enough for him, so that he needs a personal babysitter?"

The headmaster let out a deep sigh. "Anyway, he is missing from his dormitory, and no one has seen him ever after the welcoming feast," he replied, his voice laced with concern.

"Maybe we can help…"

"… looking for Harry," the twins offered, causing the Potions Master to shoot them a warning glare.

Fred pulled the Marauders' map out of his robe pocket and whispered the incantation.

HP

Harry Potter followed the other first-years into the dormitory, only to realise, saddened, that there was no place for him to sleep. The room was equipped with comfortable looking beds, something where a freak like him was not supposed to sleep in. _'A freak needs to be out of the way,'_ he recalled what he had learned at his relatives' house, and he knew his place.

While the other first-years were still exploring the dormitory and began to unpack their luggage, Harry quietly and quickly returned to the common room and left through the portrait hole, unnoticed and unbothered by his older housemates.

' _Where are the cupboards in this castle?'_ he wondered, as he slowly trailed back towards the entrance hall, checking out one or the other alcove in vain.

After a long and desperate search, the tired boy found a broom cupboard not far from the entrance hall. He hesitantly opened the door, squeezed himself inside and let himself sink onto the small free area on the floor in exhaustion, drifting off to sleep within seconds.

HP

Albus Dumbledore felt extremely grateful towards the Weasley twins for showing him on their map where he could find little Harry. "Thank you Messrs. Weasley," he said, smiling. "Fifty points each to Gryffindor."

When the twins scrambled away, he heard something like "Twice as many as Snape took," however, dismissed the comment and carefully opened the door to the broom cupboard, which had been indicated on the twins' map as the place of Harry's whereabouts.

He had to cast the Lumos charm in order to make out the child in the small place. _'Yes, it's Harry,'_ he realised, not knowing if he should be relieved, as he had found the boy, or if he should be concerned as to why a child would sleep in a broom cupboard in spite of having a four-poster bed waiting for him in his Gryffindor dormitory.

"Is he there?" Severus asked in his soft, baritone voice.

"Yes," Albus replied and leaned down to scoop the boy into his arms, frowning as he realised that he felt much too light for his age.

"Harry," he roused the boy and placed him onto his feet, before he recovered the boy's glasses from the cupboard floor and handed them to the first-year. "Why aren't you in your bed my boy?"

"Not allowed to sleep in a bed," Harry mumbled, blinking.

"Excuse me?" the Potions Master enquired, sternly. "Can you repeat what you just said?"

"I'm a freak, and freaks aren't allowed to sleep in beds. Beds are only for good, normal people," the boy replied like something that had been trimmed into his head for many years.

"You're nothing special," Severus replied in a firm voice. "You're just a normal boy."

Albus' eyes widened, when the boy turned his eyes to look at Severus in what seemed to be absolute delight.

"Is that really true?" he asked in a small voice that was laced with clear hope. "Am I really a normal boy?"

"Of course my boy," Albus confirmed, smiling.

"But my relatives said that I was a freak and not normal," Harry insisted, firmly. "If I was a normal boy, I'd be allowed to sleep in a bed and I'd have received presents for Christmas and birthdays like normal people. I so much wished I was normal, but I'm not. I'm only a freak. Professor," he suddenly raised his voice, looking at the headmaster, "are freaks allowed to attend Hogwarts? Please," he added, promising that he'd do everything to earn his keep.

Albus exchanged a horrified look with Severus, before he took the boy's hand and slowly walked him towards his own private quarters, feeling very much reassured when his youngest colleague accompanied them. Together, they led the child into his guest room and made him lie down in the most comfortable bed.

"Harry," Albus said in a soft voice. "I can assure you that you're not a freak. As Professor Snape pointed out earlier, you're a completely normal wizard. Therefore, you are not only allowed but supposed to sleep in a bed, and I'm sure that you're going to receive presents for Christmas.

"Potter," Severus added in a surprisingly gentle voice, "from muggles' points of view, all wizards and witches are probably freaks. But in fact, we're all normal, magical people – as are you. There's nothing special about you here in the magical world."

Albus observed in fascination how the boy looked at Severus with what seemed to be a combination of adoration and amazement.

"Thank you sir," Harry said in a barely audible voice, giving the Potions Master a small smile.

Exchanging another look with Severus that meant that they'd have a long way to go with the obviously at least verbally abused child, Albus sighed in relief when the boy drifted off to an exhausted slumber.

"What a first night," he said to his young colleague, as he closed the door.

"Good night, Albus," Severus replied, before they both retired to their own rooms.

HP

Harry woke up, jumpily, when the door was shut. _'I'm allowed to sleep in such a comfortable bed,'_ he realised. _'I hope they told me the truth when they said that I was a normal wizard. It would be so cool. Maybe I can even have friends. Hermione, Susan and Neville are really nice,'_ he thought, before he drifted back to sleep, feeling happier than he had ever felt before.

 **The End**


End file.
